COOKE, Annie Sybil (1895-1971)
1CL Gloucestershire 1918; 1CL Kent 1921-1943
Originally a county council clerk, ‘Nancy’ Cooke became one of the outstanding pioneer county librarians and one of the first to serve on the LA Council. KENT introduced exhibition vans, urban mobiles and county service to hospitals. She edited the LA's County libraries manual (1935) and was responsible for the chapter on North West England, South West Scotland and Northern Ireland in the 1938 Survey of libraries. She retired early to devote herself to other forms of social service, including Braille transcription for the NLB, but that early retirement was a decision much regretted by other librarians and by everyone else familiar with her work in KENT and with the LA. She was made an Honorary Fellow in 1970.